


from the tips of my hands

by ilovenct



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Fluff, M/M, a soft carefree renhyuck fic with very little substance thank u for listening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 06:42:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16592816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilovenct/pseuds/ilovenct
Summary: Donghyuck fidgets too much.Renjun paints his nails anyway.





	from the tips of my hands

“Stop fidgeting.”

“How many more times are you gonna say that?” Donghyuck asked with a grin. A shit-eating grin that sparked Renjun’s short fuse every time.

“Until you do it, dumbass,” Renjun replied. “And if you get nail polish on my new sheets, I won’t hesitate to fight you.”

Donghyuck met Renjun’s scowl with a bright laugh.

“I’m actually trembling with fear.” He pulled his half-painted hand out of Renjun’s grip, making an exaggerated show of how shaky the threat made him.

Renjun let out a defeated huff and simply rolled his eyes. “Hush,” he said. “Just give me your hand.”

A satisfied smirk filled Donghyuck’s face as his hand returned to its original place. He relaxed his body back up against the pillows at the headboard, eyes flickering to the phone in his unoccupied hand. For a fleeting moment, he was silent. Which never lasts long for Donghyuck.

He plopped the phone down next to him, gaze moving to Renjun, then Renjun’s artistry. “Pretty color, baby nail tech.”

Renjun finished coating Donghyuck’s pinky nail before looking up, the ghost of a glower on his face. “Bullshit.”

Donghyuck repositioned himself, ever so carefully to avoid his friend’s scolding, sitting up straight in front of Renjun. He looked at his shiny new nails for a moment. “Not everything I say is bullshit. I like it.”

“Yeah,” Renjun forced a smile down. “Navy blue is classic. The sparkles in it are just more you.”

“Fuck this smell, though,” Donghyuck commented. Renjun could definitely acknowledge that the nail polish made his tiny dorm smell like shit, but it was far too cold to open the window.

“Fuck you. Still have a top coat to apply.”

Donghyuck sighed dramatically, a glint still in his eyes to let Renjun know he didn’t actually care, and they continued.

 

—

 

Of all of Renjun’s friends, Donghyuck was the worst to manicure. At least Jisung would just refuse. At least Mark would sit still, Renjun damn well knowing Mark would ask him to remove it all the next day. Donghyuck volunteered himself, and then he fidgeted, and he picked it all off during class, and he’d even bite at it if he was particularly uneasy. It was almost wasteful, the way Donghyuck’s manicures would be chipped to hell within a week and a half.

Renjun kept giving him manicures anyway.

One rainy afternoon, in the middle of midterm studying procrastination, the two found themselves sitting the same way, Renjun working on Donghyuck’s nails.

“Why can’t you just do Jaemin’s nails?” Donghyuck argued, motioning to the empty bed across the room. “He lives here.”

Renjun scoffed. “One: I do his nails all the time. Two: you came to my room with me when I asked if you wanted your nails done.”

“I just wanted to avoid studying for as long as possible.”

“Mm, sure,” Renjun smiled. “You love me, and you love me doing your nails.”

Renjun watched Donghyuck’s cheeks fill with a smile that he tried his hardest to hide. “Sure, Huang.”

For a moment, the sound of rain and Donghyuck’s shitty music filled the room.

“Do you like having your nails done?” Renjun said as soon as the question crossed his mind. “Like, I mean, do people ever comment?”

“Oh, because I care so deeply about what people think of my nail color,” Donghyuck mocked.

Renjun took a moment to glare up at him, then looked back down to his hands. “You care more than you act like you do, Hyuck. Little Gemini fucker.”

Donghyuck opened his mouth to protest, then paused to think.

“Nobody ever says anything rude. Not to my face, anyway,” he finally replied. “It’s mostly just a cool gay signal.”

“Oh, wow,” Renjun giggled. “What? So Jaehyun can lovingly look at your hands during calc and receive the message that you like boys?”

Donghyuck glared at him. “So you’re telling me you don’t use those dainty hands with that pretty pink manicure to attract Nakamoto Yuta?”

“No, I do not!” Renjun snapped with a smile. “Dong Sicheng, though... He’s another story.”

With that admission, Donghyuck had all the ammo he needed. “Oh, Sichengie,” he mocked, hands clutching his chest in fake adoration. “My dearest darling! Would you bestow me the honor of holding my pretty little hand?”

“Be quiet!” Renjun shrieked, chucking a stuffed Moomin right at Donghyuck’s head.

“Hey!” Donghyuck exclaimed. “Don’t you care about fucking up my nails? I can’t defend myself with wet nails!”

Renjun knelt on the bed, lunging toward Donghyuck with a devilish smile. “Then don’t defend yourself.” He pushed Donghyuck on the chest, knocking him down onto his back, then started to tickle his sides.

“Hey! Hey!” Donghyuck said between airy giggles, defenseless with still-drying nails. “It huuurts!”

But in an instant, the jingling of keys and an abrupt opened door hushed them.

“Whoa. Sorry to interrupt,” Jaemin said coolly as he walked in, chuckling. “Didn’t mean to kill the mood.”

Renjun practically flung himself off of Donghyuck, cheeks turning pink as his nails. “You think I’d... With him?” he stuttered.

“Just calling it like I see it.” Jaemin flashed a toothy smile.

Donghyuck sat up, seemingly unbothered. “Jaemin, don’t you have a certain Lee Jeno to attend to?”

Jaemin didn’t say too much more.

 

—

 

The next manicure session gave Donghyuck a shiny apple red. The weather was brisk but sunny, sky clear as ever — just nice enough to crack the room’s window open. Chilly, sure, but it stopped the tiny room from filling with nail polish fumes.

“Do you absolutely need to lay down during your manicure, Lee Donghyuck?” His bed, might he add, which he had added about eight times in thirty minutes. Renjun complained from his chair next to the bed.

Donghyuck forced a few dramatic coughs. “Yes, Huang Renjun,” he retorted, propping his head up. “I’m getting sick. I need rest.”

“I’m getting sick just looking at you,” Renjun replied, not missing a beat, throwing Donghyuck’s hand down after he finished the final bit of top coat.

“You know,” Donghyuck replied, “at any moment I could just rub this wet nail polish all over your face.”

“Wow,” Renjun said, his back to Donghyuck as he busied himself putting his nail supplies away. “Those don’t sound like the words of a sick person.”

“You sound like my mother,” Donghyuck said with a laugh.

Renjun walked over to the window, pulling it shut. “Well, there’s no reason for you to be occupying my bed if you’re not sick. And if you are sick, then the window probably shouldn’t be open.”

“So you care about my wellbeing,” Donghyuck teased.

“I’m an Aries, not a sociopath.”

Donghyuck rolled onto his side, being careful not to bump his nails following an evil eye from Renjun. “Aren’t you scared of my germs getting all over your pristine sheets?”

Annoyance filled Renjun’s face, but so did undeniable defeat. He hadn’t considered that. “Shut up,” he whined.

Donghyuck smiled with satisfaction, knowing a “shut up” from Renjun was always a surrender. “Anyway. Have your nails seduced Sicheng yet, doll?” he taunted.

“Shut up,” he repeated, sitting down at the foot of the bed.

“I could get Jaehyun to put in the good word for you, pretty boy.” Renjun glared at him for the suggestion, and Donghyuck sat up, scooting closer to him.

Renjun gave him a weak shove. “What do you gain from mocking me?” he dramatically cried.

“What do you gain from keeping me around?” Donghyuck grinned, bringing his face right up to Renjun’s. “Huh? Huh? If I’m just so annoying…”

Renjun brought a finger to Donghyuck’s forehead, pushing him out of his face. “Nothing. I must enjoy bringing pain and annoyance to my life.”

“Sure. But really, why don’t you pursue him?”

Renjun leaned his head back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. “He’s older, he’s popular, he’s handsome, he’s talented… Must I go on?”

Donghyuck considered that for a moment. “He’s in your sociology class, so he must not be the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“It’s an elective, asshole.”

“Well, you’re popular, talented, kinda handsome, I guess… and you’re younger which means you’ll wrinkle later than him anyway,” Donghyuck said earnestly.

A chuckle escaped Renjun’s lips, giving Donghyuck another light push. “I’m simply a baby twink.”

“I refuse to listen to this gay self-deprecation,” Donghyuck replied. “It’s too sad to bear.”

“Surprised you’d be nice to me,” Renjun laughed. “Complimentary, even.”

“I’m a Gemini, not a sociopath.”

The pair laid together and talked until their stomachs forced them out of bed and to the cafeteria.

 

—

 

“There will be two positive aspects of winter break,” Renjun decided as they walked into his dorm room. “Making money, and working with my hot coworker.”

Donghyuck laughed brightly. “I’m sure your family would be delighted to hear that.”

“Kun will be family when I marry him and adopt numerous animals with him, Donghyuck,” Renjun retorted, forcing a straight face. (Well, a gay face.)

Dropping his backpack on the floor messily, Donghyuck rolled his eyes. “You have a problem, my friend.” Next, he plopped himself down on the bed. “What’s today’s nail color?”

Renjun hummed thoughtfully, peering at his basket full of polishes. “You decide. This set will be on all winter break, so it has to be good.”

“Who’s to say I won’t have someone else do them over the break?” he asked.

A frown fell on Renjun’s lips. “That would be cheating.”

“So I have to remain loyal to my nail guy?” Donghyuck smiled.

“Yes,” Renjun replied. “When I’m your nail guy, yes.”

Donghyuck motioned for the basket of polishes, taking a look through, hands quickly rummaging around. He finally landed on a glittery gold, pulling it out decidedly.

“This,” he said.

Renjun murmured a sign of approval. “Festive,” he simply said, and the two found their places on the bed, letting Renjun get to work on Donghyuck’s bitten, chipped nails.

After a short while, Renjun spoke. “Anyone you’re excited to see back home?”

“Meh,” he shrugged. “I guess my neighbor. He’s kinda cute, like in a big head way.”

Renjun snorted at the comment, never looking up from his work. “Details on the big head, please.”

“I dunno. His name is Moon Taeil. He’s in grad school, and he lives with his friends Youngho and Taeyong, and since my apartment’s walls are paper thin, sometimes I can hear him singing in the shower,” Donghyuck explained.

At the singing comment, Renjun looked up with a sparkle in his eyes. “Ooooh, is he any good?”

“He’s great, honestly,” Donghyuck admitted.

“Well, wha—,” Renjun began.

Donghyuck silenced him. “No. I don’t know his sign.”

Renjun pouted, getting back to work. “How’d you know I’d say that?”

The question seemed ridiculous to Donghyuck. He shook his head. “I know you, you little shit.”

“Coming from the biggest little shit I know?” Renjun retorted.

Donghyuck loved that title. Not that he’d admit it. It was an unspoken fact. He just smirked.

“Got any plans to woo Taeil, then?” Renjun continued.

Another ridiculous question. “No, I’ll pass.”

“How come?” Renjun said with a frown. “He sounds intelligent and, like, a musician.” Donghyuck was impressed with how quickly his friend reached that conclusion with the very little information he had given.

“Can’t cheat on my nail guy,” he replied quickly. He watched Renjun’s face, hoping for whatever annoyed response he would spew.

Renjun’s face quirked, the ghost of a scowl filling his expression. But Donghyuck didn’t expect the way his cheeks burned slightly, the little chuckle — was it a nervous chuckle? — Renjun let slip. “Stop messing with me,” he managed to say.

Donghyuck found it cute, very cute, not that Renjun being cute was anything new to him. He could surely appreciate a cute friend, platonically.

“I’m just saying,” Donghyuck replied.

“Whatever,” Renjun said, starting a second coat. “Maybe I’ll actually miss you, dumbass,” he admitted.

Donghyuck giggled. “Of course you will, thirsty. How could you not miss someone as handsome as me?”

Renjun shook his head, but didn’t rebut. Donghyuck turned up his music — Mariah Carey’s Christmas album to be specific — and that was it until Renjun finished his nails.

“All done,” he said. “Merry fuckin’ Christmas.”

He got up to put his things away, and Donghyuck examined his nails, turning them every which way to admire the sparkle. For a fleeting second, he was quiet, looking from his nails, over to Renjun and back again.

“Wait, wait,” he said, making Renjun turn around.

“Don’t tell me you don’t like it,” Renjun snapped back at him.

Donghyuck shook his head. “Let me do yours,” he said softly.

Renjun’s brow furrowed, slightly confused. “Really?”

“Really,” Donghyuck replied, patting the spot next to him. “Come on.”

Renjun turned his back to Donghyuck once more, partially to pick a color and partially to hide his smile. Not that anyone needed to know, other than himself and whatever higher power existed.

“Fine, Lee Donghyuck,” he said when he finally sat. “But they better not look ugly. I have a reputation to maintain.”

“Just as long as you don’t fidget,” Donghyuck said, and Renjun smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm back again folks!! it has been a long LONG time since i've posted and honestly a long time since i've even written for fun.. so i decided to write something short and sweet to get back in the swing of things! this fic has been an idea of mine for so long and finally putting it down on paper (no matter how short it might be) feels very satisfying. hope u enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it :*)
> 
> also sorry for never replying to comments but if u do happen to read this i appreciate every word ever commented on my stuff ♡♡
> 
> [title is a lyric from wjsn's save me save you]


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